Settlement secured for 14-year-old living with Erb’s palsy after injuries sustained at birth.

It was alleged that the attending doctors negligently failed to explain to our client’s mother the risks of vaginal birth arising from her diabetes, that her baby (our client) was expected to be large, nor the alternative of caesarean section. As a result of this lack of information during pregnancy, our client’s mother was denied the opportunity to make an informed decision as to how her baby was delivered and underwent a highly traumatic instrumental vaginal birth, in the course of which our client sustained severe injury. During the claim, we alleged that had our client’s mother been aware of the risks and benefits of caesarean section she would have decided to have that and our client would therefore have been born uninjured.

Further, it was alleged that there was negligence in the management of labour in our client’s delivery, in that the doctors negligently implemented the manoeuvres for overcoming shoulder dystocia and employed excessive traction (force to deliver the baby who was stuck) in a damaging direction.

As a result, our client suffered a severe left-sided Erb’s palsy, involving the C5, C6 and C7 nerve roots. She continues to have issues resulting from this injury with a marked loss of function of her left arm. There is significant stiffness of the left shoulder, elbow and wrist. The left arm is held in an abnormal posture, resulting in a cosmetic and functional defect.

As a result of her injuries, our client is classified as disabled, her injuries being permanent. As a consequence of that injury, she also developed social anxiety, separation anxiety and major depressive disorder.

Paul Rumley of RWK Goodman obtained supportive evidence from experts in relation to the issue of informed consent (as to how the baby would be delivered) and the reasonable skill and care exercised during the birth.

The arguments on behalf of our client were heavily disputed by the defendant legal team and the case reached Joint Expert Meetings (one of the final stages of litigation leading up to Trial). Eventually, our birth injury experts were able to secure an out of court settlement of 75% of damages.

Judgement was entered on 12 February 2025, ordering the Defendant to pay 75% of our client’s damages resulting from the injury at the time of her birth. It was agreed that the full, everyday impact of the injuries would be assessed in due course.